REPORT: Russia is helping Iran deliver arms to Syria

Russia's
President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his Iranian
counterpart Hassan Rouhani at the welcoming ceremony during a
summit of Caspian Sea regional leaders in the southern city of
Astrakhan, September 29, 2014.REUTERS/Alexei Nikolsky/RIA
Novosti/Kremlin

Russia is helping Iran violate a UN Security Council embargo
and transport arms and munitions to the regime of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, anonymous sources in western
intelligence agencies have
told Fox News.

According to Fox, Russia has conducted unregistered cargo
flights into Syria twice a day for the past 10 days. These
flights delivered Iranian weapons to the Russian-operated air
base outside of Latakia, Syria. Latakia is a strategic city
on the Mediterranean coast, within the part of Syria still
controlled by the Assad regime.

Russia is conducting airstrikes in support of the Assad regime
using planes that it's based in Latakia. Since the end of
September, the Syrian military — bolstered through Russian
air support and an
influx of Iranian-backed militia members — have pushed
outwards from Latakia towards Aleppo, pre-conflict Syria's most
populous city, in an effort to roll back a series of rebel
victories in the neighboring areas.

Fox
reports that the Iranian weapons transfers have been
coordinated by Iranian top covert operative
Qassem Soleimani and Russian President Vladimir Putin
and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Soleimani, who is the
head of the Iranian Al-Quds force, was previously
spotted near the front lines in Aleppo earlier this
month.

Reuters

The transport of Iranian arms into Syria come as the
US has petitioned Iraq to close its airspace to Moscow, as these
resupply flights would have to cross Iraqi airspace in order to
avoid flying over Turkey, a NATO member. Baghdad has agreed to
prohibit Russia from conducting airstrikes within its
country. But Iraq is disregarding the US's requests and will
still
allow Russian military aircraft to fly resupply missions over
its airspace into Syria, according to Bill Gertz of the
Washington Times.

Marine Corps. Gen. Joseph Dunford
confirmed at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on
Tuesday that Russian aircraft had flown through Iraqi airspace,
but that it was “not at the understanding of the Iraqi
government.”

Despite Dunford's statements, it appears that Iraq, Iran,
Russia are all on a similar page when it comes to the situation
in Syria. The four countries also began
sharing intelligence at the end of September about ISIS
movements and locations.